It’s official: climate cynicism is the new global warming. That’s right folks, you heard it here first. We are witnessing the biggest cultural shift since Jake Gyllenhaal made the cowboy hat queer.

What is climate cynicism, you ask? Well, like political cynicism, it involves rejecting any facts, data or expert opinions on an important issue facing our global society, and attributing all debate to partisan bickering. It’s a lot like the healthcare debate, only replace “evil money grubbing HMOs” with “Carbon Dioxide,” and “pinko-commie liberal congressman” with “Nobel laureates.”

Science, like economics, is a matter of opinion and thus best left to all those senators who don’t run around Ivy League Universities flaunting their PhDs.

Two years ago President Skorton signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, pledging Cornell to develop a plan by September 2009 in order to bring its net greenhouse gas (GHG) output down to zero. As part of this commitment, universities recognize that the act of emitting carbon dioxide or other GHG’s will place a cost on the institution, society and the planet.

Washington University in St. Louis recently announced its decision to stop selling bottled water on campus. Cornell has no intention to follow in its footsteps by discontinuing the sales of bottled water. While we support Cornell’s decision as being prudent, more steps can be taken to encourage sustainable practices, specifically in regard to water consumption on campus.

The Student Assembly announced yesterday that the S.A. Appropriations Committee unanimously approved on Tuesday the decision to buy a $4,500 package from Zimride, a nation-wide online carpool and rideshare application service founded by a Cornell alumnus. Zimride is not free to the public, but Cornell will have access to its service after buying the package, which includes its Facebook application.

About $6 billion is spent yearly by the U.S. government to subsidize corn ethanol. Around 1700 gallons of water are consumed for every gallon of corn ethanol produced. Corn is the number one cause of soil erosion in the United States and its overdependence on nitrogenous fertilizer, herbicides and insecticides is the prime reason of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet, corn ethanol produces only 1.3 percent of nation’s total oil consumption, which, according to Prof. David Pimentel, entomology, defeats the purpose of energy sustainability.

In the battle against climate change, sometimes one step forward is followed by two steps back. Even at the dawn of a new administration, the positive efforts of academia will still need to compete with the reticence of those in Washington.

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia announced in April that it had awarded Cornell a $25 million grant to pursue alternative energy research. This was welcome news. These pages have often supported the efforts of the University to foster relationships around the world, and an academic partnership with a Saudi Arabian university is another step towards bolstering Cornell’s international presence and rapport. At the same time, the grant represents a positively significant push towards useful green technologies.

Last May, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Rabigh City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia awarded Cornell a grant to fund the KAUST-Cornell Center for Energy and Sustainability. Through the grant, Cornell receives $5 million dollars every year for five years from KAUST for sustainability research.

According to Prof. Lynden Archer, chemical and biomolecular engineering and a co-Principal Investigator of the of the center, KAUST is a university that the Saudi Arabian King Abdullah commissioned and is now in its early stages of construction. The university felt that it was important to develop research partnerships with leading schools around the world, using the Singapore-MIT alliance as a model.

This is the second article in a series analyzing how various aspects of campus life impact Cornell’s commitment to sustainability.

When Cornell’s Athletic Department decided to coordinate the scheduling of the men’s and women’s squash teams so they could travel together, were they doing it to reduce their carbon footprint, or were they doing it to limit their travel expenses? The Athletic Department does not see the two as mutually exclusive. In fact, more often than not, the two are complementary –– what is environmentally sustainable is fiscally responsible.

This is the first article in a series analyzing how various aspects of campus life impact Cornell’s collective commitment to sustainability.

Have you ever opened your window in the winter time to cool down an overheated dorm room, or left the lights turned on even though you left your room for several hours?

These types of environmentally unsustainable decisions “have both economic and environmental impacts,” according to Student Trustee Mike Walsh grad, a member of the President’s Climate Commitment Implementation Committee.

Anshul Kumar ’09, a Jameson R.A., considers himself “fairly conscientious” about energy consumption; he turns off lights when not using them, turns the heater down when leaving for breaks and does not use full pressure in the shower.

Moving ahead in its endeavor to achieve climate neutrality, Cornell is taking initial steps towards developing its Climate Action Plan. The Idea Exchange is soliciting all members of the community to speak their mind and contribute ideas about what it will take to make Cornell climate neutral through Monday.

To date, 567 ideas have been submitted on the Idea Exchange website. According to the Climate Action Plan staff, ideas are grouped into “major themes” that include green development, energy conservation, biofuels and renewable energy, carbon offsets and policy. According to the staff, “No idea is too big or small” to be submitted on the site.